CRA should not subsidize a store that sells tobacco

The Community Redevelopment Agency is poised to give Piggly Wiggly supermarket $205,000 as an incentive to establish a store on the south side where Harvey’s grocery store was previously located.

This is being done in the name of improving the health of a poor, black community.

Really?

What the CRA is conveniently ignoring is that Piggly Wiggly will be selling tobacco products to this same poor black community. Unlike alcohol or sugary drinks, tobacco is the only consumer product that will kill you when used as directed.

Even worse, the $205,000 will come from tax revenue generated in the black community. This tax revenue constitutes a subsidy to Piggly Wiggly that, in turn, will sell tax-subsidized cigarettes, cigars and snuff to an overwhelmingly poor, black population.

Even secondhand smoke causes, among other things, stroke, lung cancer, heart disease, asthma and an increased rate of sudden infant death. At least 20 percent of pregnant women continue to smoke during pregnancy.

Of the 20 infants that died in Leon County during 2014, 15 were black. Five were white, and the race of two of the infants could not be determined. The white infant mortality rate in Leon County during 2014 was 3.1 per 1,000 live births compared to 11.7 per 1,000 live births for black infants.

As for asthma, for every white person in Leon County that showed up in the emergency room due to an asthmatic attack, nearly six black people (5.9) showed up. Asthma is a devastating disease in the black community. The Centers for Disease Control reports that black children die from asthma at 500 times the rate for white children.

Piggly Wiggly was the only grocery store offered $205,000 as an incentive to move into the black community. No such offer was made to New Leaf Market, which sells fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry, but refuses to sell tobacco products. No such offer was made to Earth Fare or Whole Foods, which also refuse to sell tobacco products. Whole Foods refuses to even allow people to smoke in their parking lot.

The CRA should tell Piggly Wiggly that in order to get a $205,000 tax subsidy, they will have to agree in writing not to sell any product produced by any tobacco company from the store located on the south side of Tallahassee.

Edward Holifield, M.D., is president and CEO of the Tallahassee Initiative for Social Justice. Contact him at ewholifield@yahoo.com.